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Fall Fix for Spring Shut-Down

Federal pump managers hope to make up a little water this October, water they lost last spring when they stopped the pumps to protect San Joaquin fall-run salmon. Such halts are called for under the December 1994 Bay-Delta Accord, which also says the federal and state water projects can make up for such losses later in the year. Indeed this fall, BurRec would like to do just that but it needs to use the state pumps due to Delta plumbing constraints. To get State Board approval for this change in diversion points -- not covered under its permit -- BurRec had to demonstrate there'd be no environmental downside. So a small group of agency salmon scientists convened by U.S. EPA's Bruce Herbold came to agreement on the best time for the feds to pump -- namely October before spring-run salmon are thought to leave their natal streams and enter the Estuary. The timing is just part of a series of recommendations for minimizing impacts from fall pumping made by Herbold's group in a memo to BurRec.

State water project managers, concerned that the recommendations have implications for all future fall pumping, recently asked Herbold to convene a larger, more formal process for making such decisions. Key to any new criteria for fall pumping will be better monitoring of when spring run descend the rivers and how fast they swim through the Delta, says Herbold. To see the BurRec memo, visit www.iep.water.ca.gov and look for the "spring5.mem."

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